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Category: Forgeries & Fabrications

The Golem of Prague in Recent Rabbinic Literature

The Golem of Prague in Recent Rabbinic Literature

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The Golem of Prague in Recent Rabbinic Literature by: Shnayer Leiman In a recent issue of המאור – a rabbinic journal of repute – an anonymous notice appeared on the Golem of Prague.1 Apparently, a rabbi in Brooklyn had publicly denied the authenticity of the Maharal’s Golem, claiming that R. Yudel Rosenberg (d. 1935) – in his נפלאות מהר”ל (Piotrkow, 1909) – was the first to suggest  that the Maharal had created a Golem. According to the account in המאור,…

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Benefits of the Internet: Besamim Rosh and its History

Benefits of the Internet: Besamim Rosh and its History

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Benefits of the Internet: Besamim Rosh and its HistoryBy: Dan Rabinowitz & Eliezer Brodt     In a new series we wanted to highlight how much important material is now available online.  This, first post, illustrates the proliferation of online materials with regard to the controversy surrounding the work Besamim Rosh (“BR”).  [We must note at the outset that recently a program has been designed by Moshe Koppel which enables one, via various mathematical algorithims, to identify documents authored by the same…

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More on Chaim Bloch

More on Chaim Bloch

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More on Chaim Bloch By Marc B. Shapiro In a previous post I mentioned how the non-Jewish Austrian minister Leon Bilinski was descended from the rav of Posen, R. Samuel ben Moses Falkenfeld, the Beit Shmuel Aharon. More information about Bilinski’s Jewish roots is found in Chaim Bloch’s Ve-Da Mah she-Tashiv (New York, 1943), p. 74 n. 1. In general, I have found that when Bloch is reporting about other people’s biographies and history in general, he is very reliable….

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The Letter of the Maharal on the Creation of the Golem

The Letter of the Maharal on the Creation of the Golem

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The Letter of the Maharal on the Creation of the Golem: A Modern Forgery By: Shnayer Leiman For a related post by Dr. Leiman see “Did a Disciple of the Maharal Create a Golem.”   I. Introduction     In 1923, Chaim Bloch (1881-1973), noted author and polemicist,1published a letter of the Maharal (d. 1609) that was previously unknown to all of Jewish literature.2 The letter, dated 1582 (or more precisely: Tuesday of parshat va-yera, [5]343), was addressed to R. Jacob…

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Some Assorted Comments and a Selection from my Memoir. part 1

Some Assorted Comments and a Selection from my Memoir. part 1

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Some Assorted Comments and a Selection from my Memoir, part 1 By  Marc B. Shapiro 1. Fifty years ago R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg spoke about the fraudulence that was found in the Orthodox world. Unfortunately, matters have gotten much worse since his time. I am not referring to the phony pesakim in the names of great rabbis that appear plastered all over Jerusalem, and from there to the internet. Often the damage has been done before the news comes out…

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A Gemeinde Gemeinheit

A Gemeinde Gemeinheit

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A Gemeinde Gemeinheit by Shlomo and Mati Sprecher We are delighted that the occasion of our son’s wedding (Uri Sprecher to Rivi Zand, 4 Kislev 5769) solved a 150-year-old bibliographic mystery. When we chose to provide our guests with the opportunity to engage in limmud Torah during the course of the wedding by reprinting and distributing “Tshuvah Be’Inyan Kriat HaKetubah,” we assumed that, just as the title page and the publisher’s introduction indicated, it represented an actual Halakhic Responsum issued in…

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